State Agents to Testify Against Suspended Zimbabwe AG

President Robert Mugabe last November suspended Gula-Ndebele for allegedly abusing his office and appointed a three-man tribunal to probe whether the AG – the government’s chief legal officer and an ex-officio member of Cabinet – should be permanently removed from office. The hearing that began last month but was postponed to yesterday is being held in camera at the instruction of Mugabe. Top opposition politician and constitutional law expert Welshman Ncube, who is representing Gula-Ndebele, confirmed the hearing had resumed but would not shed more details because the matter is in camera. I can confirm that the hearing has started, said Ncube, who is secretary general of the one of the two factions of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party. The state charges that Gula-Ndebele breached the law when he allegedly met former National Merchant Bank (NMB) deputy managing director James Mushore who was wanted by the police on charges of breaching the country’s foreign exchange laws. Mushore fled to Britain in 2004 at the height of a Zimbabwean banking crisis that saw several finance houses shut down by the country’s central bank. He was arrested in October upon his return to Zimbabwe. Police, who are separately investigating Gula-Ndebele, say he promised Mushore he would not be arrested if he returned to Zimbabwe. The Attorney General denies the charge. Sources said the state planned to bring forward nine witnesses among them agents of the spy Central Intelligence Organisation who were on a mission to track Gula-Ndebele and Mushore and would testify that the two met at a Harare restaurant. High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu is chairing the tribunal. Justice Samuel Kudya and Harare lawyer Lloyd Mhishi are the other members of the committee. Speculation is widespread in Harare that Gula-Ndebele, considered among the more liberal minds in the government, is being punished for aligning himself with a faction of the ruling ZANU PF party led by retired army general Solomon Mujuru that is said to be behind a rebellion in the party against Mugabe. It has been suggested that Gula-Ndebele, a brave former army officer, did not help himself when he constantly clashed with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa in a tussle over control of the AG’s department.